Moreno Valley Unified School District officials have been targeted in a federal lawsuit alleging they attempted to cover up the repeated sexual assault of a developmentally disabled third-grader, even as they failed to keep her and her alleged assailant apart and actually encouraged them to be friends.

Additionally, the suit filed by the girl’s mother claims the principal of Honey Hollow Elementary School “coerced” the girl into signing a statement — without a parent present — “in an unconscionable attempt to mitigate their liability.” The girl’s mother has repeatedly asked for a copy of the statement, but the school would not turn it over, the suit alleges.

The facts of the case are “appalling,” states the lawsuit filed in March in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The suit describes the girl as a “vulnerable” third-grader who “was sexually assaulted by another student, on multiple occasions, some of which occurred during class, while her teacher was present, and which the principal, school guidance counselor, and other district officials, knew about, but intentionally concealed, and tried to cover up.”

In addition to the district, the lawsuit names Principal Joshua Jackson Jr., guidance counselor Susan Bucy-Gist, third-grade teacher Tammy Huertas, district Director of Student Services Robert Brough, and the president and vice president of the Honey Hollow Elementary School Parent Teacher Association, both of whom served as recess attendants.

Moreno Valley Unified officials became aware of the multiple instances of “forcible sexual penetration and assault” during the second semester of the 2016-17 school year when the girl’s mother reported it, according to the suit.

Although the mother was assured law enforcement would be alerted, the suit alleges no district or school officials reported the sexual assaults to police or a child welfare agency, as required by California’s so-called mandated reporter law.

Instead, the suit claims, the then-8-year-old girl was made to “feel shame, humiliation and remorse for having told said authorities about the abuse.”

“We just felt that it was absolutely reprehensible in the manner they had treated this young girl — she was a victim,” attorney Kevin Landau said Tuesday. “You’re dealing with special-needs kids. She was really enjoying education for the first time in a long time.”

In an email Wednesday, district spokesman Christopher Weddle said: “The district takes any allegation of misconduct very seriously and strives to provide a safe environment for learning every day. The reported incident involves alleged inappropriate behavior between two students. Because we have a legal obligation to protect the confidentiality of that investigation as well as the due process and privacy rights of the students, we cannot comment on specific details related to this lawsuit.”

Told mother in February 2017

According to the suit, the plaintiff’s daughter first told her what was going on when she crawled into bed with her in February 2017:

“Momma, I have to tell you something,” she said, asking her to call the mother of the other child to make the girl “stop touching my secret.”

“I told her to stop, I even pushed her hand and stop (sic) sitting next to her. But now she gets her jacket and puts it over my lap and digs in my pants up to my private (sic) and takes her hand out and smells it,” the suit quotes the girl as saying. “If she don’t stop, can you beat her up, Mommy?”

The plaintiff approached the other girl’s mother, telling her what she was told and asking the other mother to ensure the behavior stops. She also went to the school and spoke with Huertas, the teacher, about what was happening, and asked her to alert Principal Jackson or authorities to investigate.

According to the suit, Jackson instead called in staff — including Bucy-Gist, Brough and the PTA officials — and asked them to keep the two girls apart.

The two PTA officials met with the mother, telling her she was “confused” about what had actually occurred and that they wanted the two girls to be friends.

Separating the girls didn’t work: A student alerted Bucy-Gist that the other girl had isolated the plaintiff’s daughter on the playground during recess, and was pulling her hair and calling her a snitch. According to the suit, other students said the girl had been “trying to smell people’s privates.” The other third-grader received a two-day suspension as a result.

Bucy-Gist allegedly pulled the plaintiff’s daughter aside “and told her that she was wrong for telling people about what (the other girl) had been doing to her, and not to repeat what Bucy-Gist was instructing her to do.”

The plaintiff’s daughter also reportedly was sexually assaulted again in class when a substitute teacher failed to keep the girls apart.

“Jackson’s first impulse was to conceal this incident, thereby attempting to avoid the paperwork and responsibility required in addressing these types of horrific circumstances,” alleges the lawsuit.

The plaintiff lives across the street from Honey Hollow, the only school in Moreno Valley Unified that offers the special-education disability services her daughter needs. District officials suggested she transfer her daughter to another district, where those services could be provided at another school.

“Prior to the incidents, (the girl) was doing very well at Honey Hollow, both in academic and social capacities,” the lawsuit states. She “had strong friendships, loved school, was an engaged student, and performed very well, despite her difficulties.”

Ultimately, the family felt it had no choice but to transfer the girl to the other school, 20 miles away. “She was forced to move schools, because nobody was doing anything,” Landau said.

Since the transfer, the girl is not doing well at her new school, and has been quiet, withdrawn and “despondent,” the suit claims.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of violating California Penal Code 11166, which requires those who work with children to report suspected child abuse.

These “mandated reporters” don’t need to to have proof, just reasonable suspicion that a child has been abused or neglected. In such cases, they are required to call a police agency, a probation department or county welfare office as soon as possible and then send a written follow-up report by email or fax within 36 hours.

Alleged reporting failures elsewhere

• The Corona-Norco Unified School District recently settled a lawsuit for $3 million with the family of an underage special-education student who was repeatedly molested by a former teacher’s aide. Steven Michael Martinez’s predatory behavior could have been stopped, lawyers for the victim argued, had another teacher’s aide reported him to authorities as required by law when she saw Martinez forcing her own daughter to perform a sex act on him.

• The Redlands Unified School District settled for $6 million with the family of a student who fathered a daughter by Laura Whitehurst, who was a teacher at Citrus Valley High School. Whitehurst was arrested for having sex with the minor student on July 1, 2013, but there had been rumors about the relationship for months before police were finally contacted, according to a lawsuit.

• Redlands Unified was sued again in 2017 in another case stemming from a teacher’s inappropriate relationship with students. According to the suit, district employees didn’t report suspicions of abuse by former teacher Kevin Patrick Kirkland despite allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct with at least 16 female students over more than a dozen years. All of his victims were special-needs students or teacher assistants, according to one of the attorneys in the case.

• Four Los Angeles County social workers were charged with felony child abuse and falsifying records for failing to protect 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez of Palmdale, who died from abuse allegedly at the hands of his parents in May 2013. Each faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Citing reports of injuries by Gabriel’s teacher, who took photos, and a welfare office worker, the Los Angeles Superior Court judge handling the case said: “Red flags were everywhere, yet no referrals were ever made for a medical exam.”

In Moreno Valley Unified’s 29-page response, filed on April 19, the district’s lawyers, in individual responses to nearly every paragraph of the lawsuit, write that “defendants lack sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations” and therefore deny all the allegations and deny that the district violated the law or its responsibilities.

Moreno Valley Unified is represented in the case by the Los Angeles law firm of McCune and Harber, which has previously argued that minor students in Corona-Norco and Redlands Unified bore some responsibility for their own sexual assault by teachers and should have known better.

“Everyone looks at the aggressor, but they never really look at the oversight,” Landau said. “That really creates a systemic environment where more abuse can happen.”

Landau’s firm, the Landau Group, is also suing Viacom for $100 million, alleging sexual abuse by the late Brad Grey, former president and CEO of Paramount Pictures.

Beau Yarbrough wrote his first newspaper article taking on an authority figure (his middle school principal) when he was in 7th grade. He’s been a professional journalist since 1992, working in Virginia, Egypt and California. In that time, he’s covered community news, features, politics, local government, education, the comic book industry and more. He’s covered the war in Bosnia, interviewed presidential candidates, written theatrical reviews, attended a seance, ridden in a blimp and interviewed both Batman and Wonder Woman (Adam West and Lynda Carter). He also cooks a mean pot of chili.